Pigheaded Pigskin Rules

July 21, 1986|By Orange

'A foolish consistency,'' Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, ''is the hobgoblin of little minds.'' Just ask University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley. Friday night, Mr. Dooley's son played in the Georgia high school all-star football game. And where was dad? Not in the stands, that's for sure. Thanks to an NCAA recruiting rule that prohibits head coaches from attending such affairs in person -- a rule the NCAA refused to waive in Mr. Dooley's case -- he watched the game on TV in a hotel room.

Heaven and Charley Pell only know, there's reason enough for the NCAA to ride herd on recruiting, but the kind of pigheaded enforcement of the rules Mr. Dooley ran into invites contempt for the whole process. It's hard to believe it sometimes, especially when the Bulldogs and Gators get together for trench warfare, but Mr. Dooley is human. The father in him deserved to be treated far better.